Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-06-08

December. Rooms st the Mount Vernon
with Granston; Tommy Luxton roomec
before then with him three or four months
The witness then taking up several pieces
OF the cloth ON tho table identified SON,
Of the goods 90 having been in his posses
sion since February; some cuttings he haG
brought from Salt Lake City; he knew
nothing about the trousers; they we're il
his room when Jolley and McKav went
there with him; the other goods Tommy
Luxton and he had found in Bonner't
back yard, thrown there by Mckay; they
were
DON UP IN A. BUNDLE;
they took them up to their room and Lux.
ton had had them. in his trunk until hi
left. Luxton took a piece for trouserint
and witness the balance. The goods had
been thrown cut in a bundle Of sweepings
supposedly by Mckay; the latter
brought the bundle through the
work room where witness and the Others
were; on Thursday morning the things
were in his room as usual; next went hack
with Marshal Jolley and Mckay; newell
tried to sell the goods in the bundle; never
kept the bundle q secret; told Miss Lewis
about it; had no intention OF stealing the
goods or making any profit out of them.
CrOss-examined: Never told any officer
about them; told other persons. but. not
Cornell or Pettes; knew that they belonged
to the Bonner Company; supposed Mckay
threw them out to take them away; didn't
want to inform on Mckay; thought he
wouldn't do Mckay any harm; was shield
ing a man who was stealing from his en-
ployer; told Granston, Miss Lewis and
San4uist he found them in the alley: there
is a six-foot fencel between the alley and
the back yard; considers them all one; there
is a closet there in general use by q dozen
people; saw Mckay take the goods in a
bundle through the work room and return
without them about 6 o'clock in the even
ing; witness was sitting in the work room
when Mckay took
THE BUNDLE THROUGH THE ROOM.
Luxton and witness went out Immediately
and found the goods a few feet from the
door; there was snow on the ground, and
scraps from the workroom; Luxton took
up the bundle and put it in the porch; he
put on his coat and vest and took it home
to the room; witness permitted Luxton to
take part of the goods to Canada without
any objection on his part.
Redirect: Didn't like to have Mr.. Mckay
arrested for the theft.
Henry Jonas: Known defendant for
seven months; his reputation for honesty
is good; witness examined the parcel OF
goods On the table and characterized them
partially as remnants or clippings, some
patterns cut; thought the head cutter
would miss q vest as soon as it was want
ed; couldn't say as to the Others.
CROSS EXAMINED:
If one OF his employees would carry off
a pile of goods like that he would miss
none of them except the vest pattern; he
puts similar goods in a refuse box, but if
anyone tool them from there next day he
would miss them; they are goods of no
value; the waste is generally used for
patching; if he had to use it for patch
ing it might have some value.
Granston recalled: Known Mcleod for
five months; always considered him hon
est. Cross-examined, said he had been
spoken of as a very good mechanic and
friendly.
THE PROSECUTION
then called David Mckay in rebuttal. Mr..
Haldorn asked him if he recognized the
goods lying before him. which he proceeded
to do in detail. He saw the goods before.
Did not see those goods in a package last
February. Never did anything with them
or dispose Of them; saw them in q room on
last Thursday morning in the Mount Yer
o Hotel; in McLeod's room; never put q
package in Bonner's back yard; was never
further than the door of McLeod's room
on last Thursday morning.
Mr.. Scallan then wanted to introduce
witnesses to impugn the last witness
character. The prosecution were willing to
have the witness character investigated,
but the defense thought better of it and
rested their case.
Mr.. Walsh, in his address, offered to read
Wharton's Criminal Practice, but
was overruled by the court, and saved his
exception. He summed up the evidence as
convicting the defendant with the crime of
taking goods that were
THE OF
Mr.. scallan made a very pathetic open
ing in his address in behalf of his client.
The charge, he said, against his client was
a very grave one; trif;ng though the of.
fence might be in itself, the result of con-
viction would be to blast his character for
life. He edverted to the evidence which be-
gan with a complaint Oh the alleged loss OF
a pair of pants from the store, and after
them in a very singular place, that
branch of the subject was dropped,
and the other articles found
made to form the basis of the charge.
He reviewed the evidence very infinitely
and drew the inference from his point OF
view that Mckay was the interested party
the case and that the prosecution was
to shield him as the real criminal,
and connected the presence of the trousers
in McLeod's room with the visit Mckay
paid the room by himself, after which he
went for the marshal to find the thief Of a |
pair OF trousers. He placed the blame for |
loss OF the vest patterns from Bouner's
store entirely on Mckay and traced all the 4
cause OF the prosecution to him. /
Mr.. Haldorn closed for the prosecution. |
He said he did not urge the conviction of
the defendant upon any other ground than
the moral effect OF such a verdict, believing
as he did that the prisoner was guilty and
that it was the jury's duty to put the seal
Of d~isapprobation upon the system of
petty pilfering, to which young men in the
DEFENDANTS position were too prone. He
lid not ask them to sentence the defendant |
TO three months or to a fine, but simply to
ind the defendant guilty as the evidence
him to be. and he promised to in
with the court to make the sentence
The jury retired. and about 9 O'Clock
in with a verdict of acquittal.
Sunday Arrests.